On the white sandy beach of HAWAII (yes, again.....)

In mid-July we spent 12 days in Kona on the Big Island. Yes, we went to Hawaii AGAIN this year. (it's tough to be us, huh?)  James and I realized that in the (almost) 6 years we have been married we have been to Hawaii together 5 times.  Elin, who was not quite three when we went this year, was on her 3rd trip to Hawaii. This was Anikka's first trip to Hawaii.

The flight to Kona was completely uneventful (5.5 hour non stop flight). Our girls barely made a peep and they even took a nap. Lucky us!

Elin got this suitcase for
Christmas and was excited to
finally use it in the airport and
not just in our kitchen.

Girls with our plane in the background

Amazingly, they both napped on the flight.

By the last hour, Anikka was trying to escape.

Welcome to Kona!

Our days consisted of swimming in the pool,

going to the beach,

 and usually taking an afternoon nap. For the baby, of course.

After our first few days our friend (and former nanny) Katie joined us. She is also known as "Elin's best friend" (per Elin).

We had great food,

Anikka's first shave ice on the day we arrived. It
was bigger than her head!

Macadamia nut pancakes with coconut syrup

Malasadas from Tex's

Katie's first shave ice

 we saw hula dancing,

and had beautiful sunsets.

These are some of my favorites places/pictures of the beaches we went to.  My girls LOVED playing in the sand and surf.

Keiki Pools

Hapuna Beach

Magic Sands

Some of my other favorite pictures of my girls. Yes, people asked me if Katie was my oldest daughter :)

On our last day in Kona we went on a catamaran to Kealakekua Bay Marine Sanctuary for snorkeling. Everyone had a great time.

Spinner dolphins

Spinner dolphins right next to our boat

Anikka and James

Maija and Katie

Elin looking through a see through boogie board to see the fish

Tired girl

Exhausted baby

Last shave ice

The flight home wasn't quite as peaceful as the flight there.  We had to find many things to try to distract our tired and bored children.

iPad time

diaper hat

Lots of snacks

As always we had a great time in Hawaii.  We played in the pool and at the beach everyday, had great food and we were even able to find some time to relax (which is quite hard with two small children to keep amused).    James and I had a couples massage on a private lanai,  Elin and I got pedicures,

and we made lasting family memories.

When I am having a hard day I will look at this picture which is the view from our oceanfront lanai at the Royal Sea Cliff.

Maija

Welcome 2013

For New Years weekend we traveled to Hayden ID to visit with James' brother's family.  They have four handsome boys and lots of snow, which was SUPER exciting to Elin. Both the snow and the cousins.

It's a 5 ish hour drive to Hayden....well, not with little kids and especially a nursing infant. But we survived and made it in about 6 hours.  James even started teaching Anikka how to drive.  Montana farm boys think everyone should drive around the age of eight.

 We didn't do a lot over the weekend. Mostly let Elin play out in the snow.  We got her the cutest snow outfit. We had to bribe her to actually wear the pants.

At the Scoffield house you don't just sled. No, that would be boring. You sled being towed behind a snowmobile. Here are pics of the Scoffield way of sledding.  Hayden (10 years old) is the snowmobile operator and he did a great job!

Anikka and I watched from the porch

 Anikka also liked sitting with Hunter and watching the kids play outside.

After a couple of days in Hayden we traveled to Schweitzer Mountain Resort to stay at Russ and Lisa's ski condo.  James was able to ski with his nephews and Russ while the girls and I hung out with Lisa.

Then we got Elin all geared up and took her to the bunny hill to try out skiing for the first time.

 She was apprehensive but we were kind of surprised that she allowed us to get her in ski boots and on skis.

She did okay but cried most of the time. No one knows why including her.  She did say that it was fun and she wanted to ski again. Even though she cried through most of it.

Afterwards she had hot cocoa and fell asleep in her Daddy's lap at lunch.

 Elin and Trevor had a great time playing in all the snow at the condo.

For New Years Eve we did a whole lot of nothing. I didn't even make it to midnight since I had to go lay down with the kids around 10.

We welcomed in the New Year the next morning with these cute kids

Trevor, Tristan, Anikka, Hayden, Elin, Hunter